3 Idiots: Greatest Movie of All Time?

Yes, it seems, going by all the moolah the movie is raking in. But I think it's foolish to debate whether or not a movie is the greatest movie (Bollywood movie, that is) of all time. Moreover, who cares? If the definition of greatness is so vague and relative, why do you care what is the greatest movie anyway?

The idea of writing this post germinated from one of the reviews of the movie that a gentleman called Raja Sen has written on Rediff.com . More than the review, the comments (2000+ comments, mostly cursing the reviewer) made the post an interesting read. Looking at the success of the movie, Raja Sen and Rediff should feel sorry about the pathetic review they have posted. They gave the movie only 2 stars and it has gone on to become the top grossing Bollywood movie of all time. Poor Raja Sen. I am no fan of the movie (and that is precisely what I am going to elaborate on in this post), but without a speck of doubt I can say that Raja Sen has done a shoddy job of reviewing the movie.

However, when people say it's a flawless and very "realistic" movie, I cringe. When we thoroughly enjoy something, we tend to overlook the flaws it has. Had the movie been a distaster, every single scene would have some problem or the other. But because this is such a big hit, everything is fine. Some argue that "Boss, movie mein itna to chalta hai". Of course chalta hai..but it had several scenes that doesn't make any logical sense. And more importantly, these scenes could have made in a logical way without costing the movie too much.

The purpose of the post is to just list out all such scenes that didn't made sense to me. But I am ready to listen to arguments that reads like "I think that's fine...itna to chalta hai". Well, here is a list of things that is not quite chalta hai for me:

1. Flight is emergency landed, ok. Madhavan escapes so easily, fine. But Kareena getting married around the same date (5th of September that is) is too hard to digest. Coincidences are possible, but this is stretching the coincidence a bit too far. More unbelievable is Kareena marrying the same guy, after so many years, and more importantly after being made to realize by Aamir that he only knows how to count money.

2. The guy who hanged himself wasn't designing something that was weird (contrary to what the prof. commented). There is no question of that design not flying. It's a very popular design and it usually does fly without any issues (and that is precise reason why it flew in the movie).

3. In that terribly rainy night, Kareena Kapoor so easily leaves her "almost expecting" sister at home and leaves for hospital. She had a night shift probably. And she could reach office so easily while her sister couldn't. Well, may be, the rain was particularly heavy after she left. Great! But what's surprising is that if someone can call a hospital and ask for an ambulance, one can as easily take a car from campus and reach the hospital. How can everyone be so careless about a backup arrangement at such a crucial time? May be, I am asking for too much!

4. The vacuum cleaner assisted delivery looked so novel and nice. But the real vacuum cup that latches on to the baby's head is specialized material that seals properly. What Aamir Khan used in the movie would never latch on to the baby. But I agree, this is not such a big thing. Chalta hai, for entertainment sake.

5. The whole story around Aamir Khan studying in a premier engineering college on a fake identity was unpalatable and the reasons given were flimsy. If the Dad could send Aamir Khan to study in such a prestigious college on fake papers so that his son gets his degree (which is more dangerous and risky), he could quite simply got a fake degree done. Replacing the graduation photograph digitally made no sense as it's nothing but inviting trouble.

6. Chatur Ramalingam delivering the Teacher's day speech was of course quite funny and was one of the best scenes in the movie. But was Chatur a complete stupid (he isn't really as he is a topper) not to realize that there is something wrong in the speech...why should people laugh their stomachs out on a formal Teacher's day speech? Moreover the way he was describing those words (Bal****ar and St*n), it seemed like he himself knew their meaning and was enjoying the speech.

7. Chatur Ramalingam, a millionaire, comes to India on a business trip for inking a deal that could make or break his career (a little unpalatable but okay)and he doesn't really know who the guy (Mr. Wangdu) is. More incredibly, Aamir Khan becomes such a great and respected personality (a famous scientist, that is) on a fake certificate with a fake name for so many  years and no one questioned? Did everyone turn a blind eye towards him except his friends? What about his other batchmates, the professors?

There are several other, but they are about a littler higher up in the triviality scale; so I am not going into those territories (and I wouldn't dare point out that a song and dance sequence inside a college campus is unnatural; we all know jolly well that it's given in a hindi movie). Some of you might find these observations trivial or Chalta hai. Cinematic Liberties.

It was a highly entertaining movie. Alright. But I thought it could still have done well without these obvious flaws.  The spirit of the movie is unquestionable. But it seems the director got a little carried away by the stupdendous legacy of formula Hindi movies.